Moving to Indian Village and other questions... (Detroit, Grosse Pointe: fit in, real estate)

[noimidwife]

My family, and my best friends family, are planning on moving to Detroit. (After reading many of the posts that I found from this forum after searching Google before registering, I am sure many are wondering why...) Well, I was born and raised in SF, California - the land where nothing is affordable, among many other issues that I have.

Detroit, although in dire straights feels like it offers opportunity if one can wait through the turmoil. Especially considering what is happening with real estate, and the reality of being able to afford my favorite style of real estate- Historic. Which the same homes in SF would go for millions, vs, 100K.

My friend and I have visited, looked at homes, and will be back next month again. We both loved Boston-Edison and Indian Village. Because of its proximity to downtown and the River Walk, I leaned more toward Indian Village.

I have a couple of questions. Again, I haven't yet read the more recent posts...

The posts that I read were filled with racism, from both sides... And also anger. Since 2007 has anyone noticed an improvement in racial affairs? Also, does anyone have any comment, good, or bad about Indian Village?

My friend and I are both professionals. I am a midwife, and she works for as a Public Information Officer for the City & County of San Francisco.

Lastly, is there anyone who has recently moved to Detroit and is adjusting well? If so, how did you do it? Where are you working? Where are you living?

Peace

[Shrewsbury Road]

Originally Posted by noimidwife

My family, and my best friends family, are planning on moving to Detroit. (After reading many of the posts that I found from this forum after searching Google before registering, I am sure many are wondering why...) Well, I was born and raised in SF, California - the land where nothing is affordable, among many other issues that I have.

Detroit, although in dire straights feels like it offers opportunity if one can wait through the turmoil. Especially considering what is happening with real estate, and the reality of being able to afford my favorite style of real estate- Historic. Which the same homes in SF would go for millions, vs, 100K.

My friend and I have visited, looked at homes, and will be back next month again. We both loved Boston-Edison and Indian Village. Because of its proximity to downtown and the River Walk, I leaned more toward Indian Village.

I have a couple of questions. Again, I haven't yet read the more recent posts...

The posts that I read were filled with racism, from both sides... And also anger. Since 2007 has anyone noticed an improvement in racial affairs? Also, does anyone have any comment, good, or bad about Indian Village?

My friend and I are both professionals. I am a midwife, and she works for as a Public Information Officer for the City & County of San Francisco.

Lastly, is there anyone who has recently moved to Detroit and is adjusting well? If so, how did you do it? Where are you working? Where are you living?

Peace

I actually am from Detroit and am once again a resident. I work however in the sububrs and I have reajusted quite fine. Moving to Indian Village, which by the way is a beautiful affordable historic district is nice but beware, it is surrounded by an area in Detroitm with potential crime so unless you are used to it... Any way I live in a beautiful historic district in Detroit in the north western part of the city which is a little further from all the excitement happening downotown, the Sherwood Forest/Palmer Woods area, Detroits racial affairs have improved but not been abolished, both city and suburbs, if you are white and want to live in a nice predominately black neighborhood (Indian Village in slowly becoming mixed) you are likely to get a warm welcome from residents aside from the occassional, "go back to your side of 8 mile" remark from people who thing your from the suburbs. If you a black moving there you will get a warm or ever warmer welcome by the neighbors, theres not nearly as much hatred like in the sixties but theres still some racial tention.

[Dexterguy]

I mostly agree with what Shrewsbury said, Indian Village is a beautiful area, and the homes are truely stunning. You can't find homes like them except in like mentioned Boston-Edison and Grosse Pointe (suburbs).

Home prices have really fallen in areas like Indian Village, so this is the time to buy.

[noimidwife]

LOL, I am actually 1/2 black & 1/2 white, so hopefully, as it is now, I will fit in well with both communities of folks.

Yes, the housing prices have fallen. I am actually coming to make up my mind between the few that I have seen. I did notice that Indian Village is surrounded by some questionable blocks. I loved the Belle Isle Park, and it seemed fairly close.

Oh, and I did go to Sherwood Forest and Palmer Woods. Those homes are truly stunning!!! It is unbelievable to me (and my friends here in Cali) how affordable the homes are. Of course, we are not looking through "Rose Colored Glasses"... We do realize there is a reason for the affordability of the homes, or should I say mansions.

I plan on working in Windsor. That was one of the reasons that I chose Indian Village. I was loving its proximity to the tunnel.

I am definately not a suburb girl. I tried suburbs here in Cali, but it really reconfirmed that I am a city girl . I also know that in every city, particularly those with horrible economic situations, one has to be very careful.

Thanks again. When moving so far from home, I am sure that others feel as I do... We APPRECIATE the information.

[and the]

For what it's worth, Charlie Leduff just had a article in the Detroit News about the neighborhood across the street and a world away from Sherwood Forest/Palmer Woods. Not to be a wet blanket, but someone had to say it....

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090...ead-end/?imw=Y

[noimidwife]

Originally Posted by and the

For what it's worth, Charlie Leduff just had a article in the Detroit News about the neighborhood across the street and a world away from Sherwood Forest/Palmer Woods. Not to be a wet blanket, but someone had to say it....

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090...ead-end/?imw=Y

Thanks so much for the article. The truth is the truth. In a strange way, the story made me think that something has to happen eventually. Things just can't stay like that forever.

Such a shame for neighborhoods to fall into this condition! My heart went out to the residents.

[Shrewsbury Road]

Originally Posted by and the

For what it's worth, Charlie Leduff just had a article in the Detroit News about the neighborhood across the street and a world away from Sherwood Forest/Palmer Woods. Not to be a wet blanket, but someone had to say it....

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090...ead-end/?imw=Y

What a tragedy, it's true, directly on the other side of Woodward Avenue that's what it is until you hit Ryan Road really. But thats what some parts of the city has face extreme decline in addition to normal decline almost all the city sees.

[noimidwife]

Originally Posted by Shrewsbury Road

What a tragedy, it's true, directly on the other side of Woodward Avenue that's what it is until you hit Ryan Road really. But thats what some parts of the city has face extreme decline in addition to normal decline almost all the city sees.

You know, it just makes me continue to think that we Americans have to take back communities, whether urban, suburban, or rural. We can't continue to let our jewels decline.

Here in Northern California, among other things, we are battling meth. Meth, and other drugs have also ravished many neighborhoods, particularly urban. Something has to be done, and it is going to take "Average Joe's" to do it.

[Coldjensens]

Ilooked seriously at Both Indian Villiage and Boston Edison three years ago when we moved here from California.

Here is what made us decide to go elsewhere:

Schools
High taxes in Detroit
OPen space for our kids.
poor services in Detroit.
we already lived in an Indian villiage type neighborhood in CA and wanted something different for the sake of change.
crime
very poor city services

What we liked:

Beautiful affordable old homes
convenience.
great nieghbors
the pioneeing spirit (we did the same thing in Ca - moved into a nice historic neighborhood in a city where families with money generally only move away from- it was a wonderful expoerience).

Almost all of the negative can be worked around. There are some decent schools in Detroit (charter schools). Taxes areoffset by low real estate prices. Crime and poor city services are addressed by organizing theneighborhood.

Open space, the desire for change and an amazing opportunity (an 1836 house offered for $1 - we just had to move it) made us drop the ideal. There are many many wonderful historic small towns/suburbs around Detroit.

We learned from our prior experience that you can make things work very well in a neighborhood like indian villiage. It takes a lot of work, so much so that it becomes a lifestyle, not just a task. It defines who you are and you work at it all the time. It gets discouraging. There are setbacks and sometimes it seems like the government is against you, sometimes it will seem like your neighbors all want to sit back and watch you take care of everything for them. Sometimes the concerns thatarise in our pesonal life force you to give it up for a while and there will be setbacks. Any improvement takes forever to achieve and are very fragile, and easily lost. However if you work at it like a demon, and be patient, you will suddenly realize that your efforts did succeed, that you really made a difference and the place has improved markedly over five or ten years. You just donto notice because it is so incremental that you miss the change. You can do it, and it is very rewarding,but be prepared to work your tail off at it and for heartbreak and frustration.

We learned a couple of things from our prior effort. First thing to do is to make your house and yard secure as it can be. Seond or at the same time, get to know your neighbors really well and if they are not oganized, get them organized towork together for security and improvement of the neighborhood. If they are already organied, ease your way in. (donot strut in expecting to take over), but re-work the group and re-energize them. Start a newsletter if there isnt one. Do not forget the social side of things as well.

Reach out accross the racial and economic divide. This may take a lot of work and may annoy your neighbors who will say we tried to do that, it does nto work. You probably will not be welcome at first. What we found helped is to get the neighbors to organize events for underprivileged kids and participate inthe events so that they get to know each other. A street basketball tournament really broke the ice for our former neighborhood. We hosted a ffree easter egg hunt every year. At first we just paid for it. Once we got up to 40 plus participants, we got the neighborhood association to sponsor it and pay for most of it. It became a huge even with lots of participation. We put togher Christmas Caroling, shared work groups (to help eath other with home improvement and garde3ning projects), neighborhood celan up projects, Citizen watch partrols (basically just four or more people going for a walk with cell phones - make a hug difference on crime), and we fought and fought and fought with council until they started supporting our efforts.

Work wiith the city council, but first force them to acknowlege you. Accomplish some good things first. When you go to councol, show up with 15 or 20 people. Remind them that you are residents of the city. Stay calm have everyone speak and make sure that no one makes any racially charged comments.Even if they get racial or abusive, everyone must stay calm and simply respond nicely and logically. Eventually some of them will get tired of looking like the foolish unreasonable side of the table. Eventaully the Council will recognize you as a valuable resource and work with you. then you can get block grants for money to improve your neighborhood as well as s7upport from police, fire, public inspectors etc. At first, make sure every meeting that you attend with council is televised, it helps cut donw on how much they mistreat you.

Work with all braches of the city government. If you have a crack house on your street, the police may help, but it may be far more effective to go after the landlord. Get code enforcement and the fire marshall involved. Look into Safe Streets now (where all the neighbors record theproblems and then bring small claims lawsuits against the landlord). Look for alternate ways to get the change that you need. the "normal" methods are nto always the most effective. We got rid of more bad guys using code enforcement than we did throughthe police.

If you decide to do this - good liuck and congratulatioins. Get as many people to move into you neighborhood as you can. You must have ahigh level of active neighbors or you are doomed. You can reverse these neighborhods, but first you must stop the decline.

[noimidwife]

That response was wonderful!!! If you don't mind me asking, where did you move from (in Cali) and to (in Detroit). Did you move because of the affordable housing, or do you have family in Detroit.

My friend and I have been watching the news here in California. Almost biweekly, the news mentions the housing decline in Detroit. We finally decided to just go and see for ourselves.

As you know, here in California we are overcharged for everything. I think the air that we breath here actually cost more . In addition, housing is out of control.

While viewing homes in Detroit, I was told by my realtor, which I plan on confirming on my June trip at the Assessors Ofice, that Indian Village (and other historic communities) has a tax abatement, and when including the Homestead, the taxes are actually affordable. Do you know anything about the tax abatements?

I am greatful for your advice and expertise.